Gov. Christie nominates new DCA commissioner

Andrew Mills/The Star-LedgerDepartment of Community Affairs Commissioner Lori Grifa, right, speaks during the Mayors' Box Luncheon on Nov. 16 alongside Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff. Grifa will be stepping down from her post in January and will be replaced by deputy Labor Commissioner Rich Constable.

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie today nominated Rich Constable, the deputy labor commissioner and a former federal prosecutor, to replace Lori Grifa as commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs.

She will return to private practice at Wolff & Samson, a prominent law firm with close ties to the Christie administration. She is the second high-ranking cabinet official to leave Christie's administration this month. Board of Public Utilities President Lee Solomon announced on Nov. 10 he was departing to return to the Superior Court as a judge.

Grifa said she was proud of her accomplishments at Community Affairs, particularly improvements in housing for the developmentally disabled.

"It's been challenging, demanding, interesting, exciting, maddening, but all good," she said. Asked what she would have done differently, she said: "bought more antacid."

Christie announced Grifa's departure and Constable's nomination at a Statehouse press conference today. Gubernatorial administrations often experience high-level turnover at their halfway marks. Attorney General Paula Dow, who has also expressed interest in being a judge, is expected to leave the administration as well.

Christie said there would be one or two more announcements involving cabinet-level changes in the coming weeks.

"We'll resolve it by year's end so when we start the new legislative session everyone knows what kind of lineup we'll have for the next two years," he said.

Christie nominated Grifa to run the Department of Community Affairs one week after his inauguration, saying she would bring discipline to how the state dishes out financial aid to towns. The department has wide-ranging influence, from support to local governments to fire code inspections.

That places Grifa at the center of New Jersey's longstanding battle over high property taxes, and towns have struggled with lower state aid and a tighter tax cap.

Democrats have criticized the Christie administration for ongoing property tax increases, but Grifa said there have been some successes.

"We saw very promising evidence that this is moving in the right direction," she said. "I would not suggest to you there's been dramatic improvements, but there has been a steady increase in improving numbers."

Grifa also said more towns were sharing services, helping to lower costs.

During Grifa's tenure, Community Affairs took responsibility for ensuring low-income residents had access to housing after Christie dissolved the much-maligned Council on Affordable Housing.

William Dressel, executive director for the League of Municipalities, said Grifa made "valuable contributions" to the state.

"She was quite knowledgeable on the issues, and she was always receptive to our suggestions and comments," he said.

Dressel said Grifa helped loosen onerous rules on affordable housing. But Kevin D. Walsh, associate director at the nonprofit Fair Share Housing Center advocacy group, criticized her record and Christie's policies. Walsh said allowing individual towns more leeway to make decisions with less state oversight will permit wealthy areas to offer less affordable housing.

"It's a disaster for families and seniors and people with special needs," he said.